Oscar Micheaux

Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (January 2, 1884 – March 25, 1951) was an American author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Although the short-lived Micheaux Book & Film Company produced some films, he is regarded as the first major African-American feature filmmaker, the most successful African-American filmmaker of the first half of the twentieth century and the most prominent producer of race films.

He produced both silent films and "talkies" after the industry changed to incorporate speaking actors. Description above from the Wikipedia article Oscar Micheaux licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.